Do you eat what you burn?

ZebraHead

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

I am not trying to be mean but can you point me to the facts where you derived this statement from?

Thanks

ZH

taso42_DELETED

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

also, cat urine will make you fit and ripped, so drink cat urine!

mrsknotts

No matter how bad I want to look good in my bikini, I will never drink cat urine. There isn't much I wouldn't do....but that's one thing I wont

misschaplin

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

also, cat urine will make you fit and ripped, so drink cat urine!

*wanders round lounge looking for cat* :huh:

ashers1819

This is always a hotly debated topic. You need to figure out what your BMR is and then what you are likely to use calorie wise throughout your day through activity. Look into that first. Then you can figure out how many calories you should be eating. For the most part it is my understanding that MFP encourages you to eat 1200 a day. Even if you select 2 Ibs loss a week and you input that if it will require you to eat less than 1200 it won't recommend that you lose the full 2 Ibs a week through diet.

If you are honestly still concerned about losing 2 Ibs then you will need to fill the gap with excercise but I recommend looking into what your body needs and then sticking to the food diary at first. Once your body learns to recognise the symptoms of hunger and dehydration then you can start to play around with not eating your exercise calories back.

I think if you mess with that programme too much, your body is dealing with too many changes at one time and you will not learn what your body needs.

Weightloss is so difficult, it's hard to teach your brain to go against a learnt habit of making poor food choices!

mrsknotts

Although I'm sure there are plenty of members "duking" it out over topics it's nice just to get a response sometimes. The girls I work with all starve themselves and of course look amazing. I can't do that, I don't want to do that. Oh, and did I mention I'm closing in on 30 fast? These girls are binge drinkers who eat taco bell for breakfast. No wonder that doesn't work for me. Fast Food Diet anyone? How about only eating 200 cookies a day? Why do I ever believe these rediculous things will work. In my head I know better but the seams of my pants beg for a quicker fix than good old fashioned diet and exercise. Nose to the grindstone I'm going to do it the right way. And when those girls hit 30 they'll have their own crisis to go through

ZebraHead

You want a lifestyle that is sustainable. Starving is not an option in the long term and can (long term) trigger some responses in your body that are adverse to your continued healthy weight loss/maintence goals.

mrsknotts

Amen!

ShrinkinMel

Yep I eat them up or mostly up. I try to eat back 75% or so of them just in case calorie burn estimates are off. It seems to work best that way even with one day of going over last week I lost 2 lbs doing this. Weeks when I ate them all I saw 1.6 lb losses. Not much difference but a tad.

I wouldn't have a problem eating 1200 calories at all but I do struggle sometimes when it wants me to eat 2000-2200 because of my work out.

I like to have a slice of bread with peanut butter right after my workout. You can add snacks in so you eat about every 3-4 hours at least. Healthy foods that have good nutrition(fiber, protein etc) are going to fill you up quicker.

atomdraco

http://shouldieatmyexercisecalories.com

*Thumbs UP, UP, UP*

onebadrg

Exercise Question:
How many calories must I burn to lose 1 pound?



Exercise Answer:
There are 3,500 calories in one pound of body fat. You should focus on creating a deficit of 500 calories a day, which over the course of one week will result in one pound of weight loss (500 calories X 7 days = 3,500 calories). This can either be accomplished through burning the calories through exercise, creating a caloric deficit through your diet or a combination of both. I recommend a combination because its the easiest way to incorporate into an overall fitness plan. Work on making a small change in your diet to create a 250 calorie deficit and then add about 30 minutes of cardio training a day to burn the other 250 calories. A great workout will consist of cardio cross training a few exercises such as jogging on the treadmill and jumping rope.

So what this means is if you want to lose weight then you must burn more calories than you take in and to continue the loss you must do it week in and week out.

Now once you reach your goal weight then you should increase your calorie intake gradually not all at once to bring you back to maintenance role. At this point if you like the weight you are currently at you then just equal the amount of calories burned with those you eat. Repeat the cycle as needed, you eat a little more for a few days then decrease other days. Those calories must be healthy calories, not going back to what had you gain the weight in the first place.

I have been able to successfully maintain my weight to the pound one year after losing 50 pounds. I have put on 2 pounds of muscle and kept my Body Fat to 10.2%.

Of course I have kept up my exercise and eating right. Pretty straight forward.

ChessRonin

In reference to the question of how to increase your caloric intake when you get full so easily, it's quite simple. Consider the following:

Eat foods that are more dense calorically, and eat them at the right times. You can get protein powder that is 200 calories per scoop or more; blend that with a cup (8oz) of orange juice and a banana and you have a protein shake that is 400 calories rich and less than two cups in volume; drink half before the workout and half after, then you're set!

If you burn 600 calories from exercise on the days that you workout (I believe that is the number that you mentioned) then you should plan to bracket your workouts with at least 500 calories. Get (or make) a 250 calorie protein shake a half hour or so before the workout to have a ready fuel supply in your body for the exercise, and within a half hour of the workout drink another 250 calorie protein shake so that your muscles can recover better.

As far as why this is a good idea, consider this:

Your body is not a bank, and though simply controlling the in/out summary of calories each day may help you lose some weight, it certainly won't maximize your health and fitness levels and it will fail at a point.

When you exercise, your muscles need calories and nutrients in different quantities, and simply relying on the meal that you ate three hours earlier may not be the best way to satisfy those needs. What's worse is exhausting your nutritional and caloric reserves from normal metabolic activity and then working out. You'll probably feel much better exercising with proper fueling beforehand, and you'll definitely recover better if you eat afterwards.

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Katysleftin

You need the calories even if you feel full bc your body needs the fuel to push you through your workouts so you can get toned & lean

jrwurr

I have noticed since I've been eating most of my exercise calories that the scale has moved! I hadn't been doing that before I was on here, and the scale didn't move for probably 6 weeks! Some days I eat most of them, others I only eat 1/2. Just depends on how hungry I am!

mrsknotts

Who freakin knew?! And why haven't I been told before? I feel like I ate so much yesterday, probably because I wasn't trying t deny my hunger. I almost hit my 1200 mark, worked out and drank my protein........AND LOST 2 FREAKIN POUNDS! I thought for sure I would have to gain for a few days before losing. I feel good:)

ZebraHead

It is great when you see the scales move. Don't fret when they don't. Just keep doing what you're doing and you'll be fine in the long term.

Congrats! And wishes of long term success for you. :flowerforyou:

Rworthy

After about 8 months of dieting and exercising, I was eating my exercise calories back and not losing weight. Not I'm not eating them back and I'm finally seeing some results! I guess it all comes down to body type. (There are some good articles out there on exercising for your body type that are very eye-opening). But, I did come across this article that might also help add to this discussion.

Secret Weapons for Weight Loss - Don't Overcompensate for your Workouts:

http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/a/secretweightlos_5.htm

Rworthy

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

MFP already incorporates a healthy deficit in your calorie goal. Eating back your exercise calories is to maintain that deficit. Unless your trainer is very familier with how MFP sets your goals, they won't know this. Look at your goals page.

Doctors don't recommend a deficit more than 1.200 calories per day. My deficit is 1000 - 1200 depending on how hard I worked out that day. MFP ONLY allows a deficit of 500 calories per day. I'm not sure if you can increase this or not. All I know is 500 calories is not a big enough deficit for ME to see results. It may be fine for some, but I was just giving a different perspective from my experience.

Rworthy

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

I am not trying to be mean but can you point me to the facts where you derived this statement from?

Thanks

ZH

Personal experience, and this article is also helpful.

http://exercise.about.com/od/weightloss/a/secretweightlos_5.htm

Rworthy

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

also, cat urine will make you fit and ripped, so drink cat urine!

HAHA Funny! Seriously people, how much weight have you lost? 7 pounds? I'm on my way to 30 pounds lost after an entire year of trying and doing what everyone on here told me to do. I'm trying to make this easier for us all by shedding some light on the situation.

backinthenines

Eat the extra calories because you need to refuel to keep from getting hungry and running too much of a deficit. Your body will go into defense mode and you will stop losing weight. You will still be on target. On my long workout days I have a good time because my daily limit goes up from 1280 to 4300 and I can pig. Healthy food of course. If I don't, my body won't recover and adapt to the workouts. {I'm training for Ironman and losing too much weight per week is worse than not losing enough.}

A lot of your long bike rides and long runs will be basic steady state cardio, which doesn't burn anywhere near as much as people often think.

I gained 25 pounds during my Ironman training by re-eating the calories burned as according to my Garmin HRM.

You might find it interesting to read this some time:
http://figureathlete.t-nation.com/free_online_article/training/the_final_nail_in_the_cardio_coffin

taso42_DELETED

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

also, cat urine will make you fit and ripped, so drink cat urine!

HAHA Funny! Seriously people, how much weight have you lost? 7 pounds? I'm on my way to 30 pounds lost after an entire year of trying and doing what everyone on here told me to do. I'm trying to make this easier for us all by shedding some light on the situation.

Yes, 7 lbs while on MFP, in about 6 weeks, while eating eating eating.
And around 30-35 lbs prior to MFP, again while eating eating eating.

stormieweather

To reiterate...unless you're trying to gain weight DON'T eat back your exercise calories, but DO add a protein shake after a workout. Mine acts as my "fourth" meal - with all meals ranging from 300-400 calories each.

also, cat urine will make you fit and ripped, so drink cat urine!

HAHA Funny! Seriously people, how much weight have you lost? 7 pounds? I'm on my way to 30 pounds lost after an entire year of trying and doing what everyone on here told me to do. I'm trying to make this easier for us all by shedding some light on the situation.

But not eating back your exercise calories is not how MFP is designed to function. Your issue was not that MFP didn't work (in general) but that your specific numbers were off. If you overestimate your exercise calories and/or underestimate your calories eaten and/or miscalculate your activity level, you can completely obliterate your deficit and not lose a pound. So please be careful when you give advice that may be detrimental to the next person.

princessjarvis

This post is fab and dispelled a few myths!!

This was my worry exactly no wonder i havent been loosing weight....Ive been eating my 1200 then burning anything between 600-1000 calories in the gym and maybe only eating 2/300 of them back....so am i right in thinking i should be eating more of them back??

If anyone can help me let me know feel free to add me and check out my diaries i could do with some help!

Thanks :-) x